De-Starbucksification of New York City

“What you see going on now is a de- Starbuckification, if you will,” said Suzanne Wasserman, a food historian who is director of the Gotham Center for New York City History. “People are yearning for authenticity.”

On coffee habits in New York:

“It was a badge of honor to drink bad coffee out of those blue cups,” said Mr. Zell, referring to the once ubiquitous cardboard cups decorated with Greek figures that were used by bodegas and street vendors. “For all its center-of-the-universe feel,” he said, “New Yorkers can sometime be the last to change, because lots of things are very entrenched. Coffee was one of them.”